Page 82 of Possibly Texas

Apparently, we were going to start where we’d end up. Or, at least, that’s what I assumed.

“You ready?” Auggie asked as he slid to a stop.

I stopped abruptly, nearly tumbling over from the grass and into the road.

“What?”

“We have to walk backwards around town thirteen times,” Auggie said with a frown. “Remember?”

“Of course, I remember.” I nudged him. “You just confused me the way you took off from Starbuck’s. That’s all.”

“Oh. Okay,” Auggie said. “So?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Why else would I have met you?”

“My dazzling personality, obviously,” Auggie took his turn nudging me.

I stole a glance at that white diamond.

“It was definitely for the ghosts.”

Auggie cackled, which made me smile and my gut flutter. I liked making Auggie laugh.

“So?” I asked. “What do we…”

Auggie nodded, switching to the business at hand.

“Easy enough,” he said. “Or, from what I’ve been told, of course. I’m just a gossip.”

I rolled my eyes.

“But we just turn around,” Auggie turned with a flourish as he spoke, and I followed his lead, “and then we walk. Backwards. Around downtown thirteen times. Starting here and ending here.”

I stood there, thinking about the backwards trip around downtown Possibly, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was coordinated enough for the task. Thirteen times, walking backwards, around Possibly was a bit of a walk. It wasn’t far but it was at least a couple miles. Walking backwards wasn’t all that difficult, of course, but doing it for so long increased the odds I’d stumble. Not that I was particularly clumsy—I was good at running like hell—but I’d never tried to be coordinated backwards.

“I’m going to fall,” I said. “But whatever.”

Auggie chuckled. “Stop being so negative.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s go,” Auggie said with another nudge to my ribs. “We want to see ghosts, after all.”

Lurching to keep up as Auggie suddenly took off at a fairly rapid pace backwards, I managed to stay on my feet as we headed west.

“Actually,” I said, looking down at my feet, “I’d rather we didn’t see ghosts.”

“Oh, yeah?” Auggie asked. “Scared?”

He was teasing, but he wasn’t wrong.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “But if we don’t see ghosts, you owe me two milkshakes. Remember?”

He chuckled. “And when I’m right, you have to work harder on finding your art.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Auggie and I fell into a rhythm as we marched backwards down the street along the graveyard. We managed to turn to the left towards Liberty Lane without a hitch. By the time we had reached The Pueblo, and neither of us had so much as stumbled, we fell into an easy banter. Both of us wanted to discuss Amos’ selection of music for the day. Jeepers Creepers was a little too on the nose as background music for our mission, which we both agreed on. I quipped that Auggie had probably slipped a request to Amos that morning, but Auggie denied all responsibility.